Friday, July 15, 2011

Networking, New Opportunities, the News of the World and Dance



Mi hoffwn ddweud diolch yn fawr iawn wrth bawb yn Rhuthun a Chaerdydd roeddent oll mor groesawus. Mae'r gwaith 'da chi'n ei wneud yn anhygoel ac rwyf yn gobeithio y gallwn weithio gyda'n gilydd yn y dyfodol. Os y gallaf eich cefnogi mewn unrhyw fodd, yn enwedig i alluogi rhwydweithio rhwng pobl o'r un feddwl, yna cysylltwch a mi...Clive


ENGAGE
Over the last couple of years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with a range of people involved in museums and galleries and who see the potential reach of their work on well-being. Renaissance North West and the Museum of Modern Art in New York are two such organisations that are leading the way and I’d urge any of you not aware of their work to have a look.

This week I’ve been working with colleagues in Engage Cymru at the Ruthin Craft Centre and National Museum and Gallery in Cardiff on their excellent engage programme. As well as being inspired by the people and projects, I’m increasingly aware of the pockets of excellence that take place in diverse communities, that if I hadn’t had the good fortune to learn about on these occasions, I’d never know about.

And it seems when I meet these inspiring people/projects, they all feel that they are somehow, small-fry; not part of the bigger picture…and the truly exciting thing for me (with some bloated egos tossed to one side for a moment), is that these pockets of excellence are not only happening in Wales and England*, but all over the world. I’ve seen tiny projects in Australia as well as the big ones and recently heard visionary stories of work in South Africa and truly ground breaking work in communities in the USA.

I recently heard Mike White describe this movement as 'a small scale global phenomenon’, to which I am deeply indebted. This sums us up, doesn’t it?

The conversations I’ve had inevitably come round to training, finances and more often than not networking.

I for one, am really keen that our networking opportunities aren’t hampered by bureaucracy: language: egos or imaginary boundaries. Technology increasingly means that we can communicate with each other regardless of distance, and with our idiosyncratic google translator (to some extent), regardless of language differences too. So, do you want to network and explore some of these issues further and like me, do you think we can do this without being hung up on obstacles. Get in touch, make suggestions and lets explore what is possible.

*I don’t really need to tell you how much groundbreaking work’s happening in Scotland and Ireland do I?…just look at the Bealtaine Festival for a starter, or perhaps if your child is poorly the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital might be conducive to a speedy recovery…or the Maggies Centre’s…the list in these two countries is endless.

ARTS AT THE HEART
For the latest copy of Arts Development UK magazine (formerly nalgao) go to:
http://artsdevelopmentuk.org/resources/magazine


MEDICAL NOTES
The Royal Northern College of Music are looking for an experienced evaluator for our Youth Music funded Medical Notes project at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. Please find all details in the attached brief. Deadline for the submission of expression of interest is Monday 1 August 2011 at 10am. Interviews will be held in the week commencing 5 September.
http://www.rncm.ac.uk/component/content/article/73/100.html


CHESHIRE DANCE
CALL for 10 Facilitators with teaching and training experience for PAID contracts

There are 10 exciting facilitator roles in this project, apply if you have:
  • Experience in facilitating specific community groups with different specialism’s
  • Experience creating work for and engaging with community groups
  • 3 – 5 years of professional practice
10 facilitator contracts are available ranging from £2,500 - £4,500 (20 – 40 days, dependent on skills, experience / funding) Shadowing opportunities will also be available with this work.

Please e-mail info@cheshiredance.org or call 01606 861770 for an application pack and return this to us by 5pm Thursday 18th August 2011

Interviews will be on 24th and 25th August 2011. http://www.cheshiredance.org/ 

Whilst we're all keen to have a go at the Murdoch empire, don't we need to examine our own appetite for the salacious and popularist, fed by consumerism and the 'free market'? This new article by Christopher Hitchens examines our hypocrisy.

It took another dog to eat Murdoch’s dog
“It is Sunday afternoon, preferably before the war. The wife is already asleep in the armchair, and the children have been sent out for a nice long walk. You put your feet up on the sofa, settle your spectacles on your nose, and open the News of the World. In these blissful circumstances, what is it that you want to read about? Naturally, about a murder.” – George Orwell, Decline of the English Murder
...thanks Sally!!!
These '...characters, are consciously “slumming” it by picking up a newspaper that was intended for the less-literate elements of the proletariat. But for decades, in fact since well back into the mid-Victorian epoch, Britain’s News of the World was the winning formula for the depiction of crime and squalor and vice. The brilliance of the formula lay in its venerable hypocrisy; actually in two distinct kinds of venerable hypocrisy...'

ON THE TRAIL OF THE BLACK DOG...




...but just where is it?


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